


The Digestive Adventures of the Owl and the Shrew

by letmegeekatyou



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Consent, Explicit Consent, Fluff, Holding Hands, Lab Partners, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-24
Updated: 2014-04-24
Packaged: 2018-01-20 16:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1517267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letmegeekatyou/pseuds/letmegeekatyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam has to work with a new lab partner.</p>
<p>Written for knightjeran on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Digestive Adventures of the Owl and the Shrew

Sam was a smart guy, he really was. He could recite chemical formulas like he was getting paid for it, and it might not have helped him get laid, but it was definitely putting him on the right path to get into a great college, where he would probably be even more brilliant and also continue not getting laid.

His problem, his very frustrating problem, was that since he’d started really growing (and it looked like he wasn’t going to stop any time soon), he was a little clumsy. Not woman-in-a-bad-romantic-comedy clumsy (ie, not the kind of clumsy that had him tripping and falling into the arms of gorgeous guys), just not-great-at-regulating-the-bunsen-burner clumsy or measuring-chemicals-for-solutions clumsy. It was a precision problem. 

Normally, it wasn’t a big deal, but his lab partner Victor was out with mono (“See, Sammy, not all nerds are monks like you. Maybe I picked the wrong person to do all that making out with, but at least I got to make out with _somebody_.”), and that left Sam on his own. For the lab when they were supposed to dissect an owl pellet. The kind with tiny, fragile bones in need of extraction. _Awesome_. 

Sam was relieved when Ms. Harvelle called him up to her desk as everyone was beginning the lab. Maybe he was going to get out of it. Maybe he would get to write a research report instead. He almost crossed his fingers with excitement at the thought of being allowed to go to the library instead of staying in the lab. 

"Sam, it wouldn’t be fair of me to make you do this one on your own, not when everybody else has a partner to split the work." 

"No, I guess not," Sam answered, inwardly very excited about how this conversation was going. 

"So, I’m going to ask you to come back after school. You see, technically, we have another student in this class, Castiel Novak, but he’s been taking chemistry at the University this year to get some early credits. Since the scheduling conflicts, he does his labs for this class after school. He’s normally partnerless, too, but I don’t think he’ll mind, and it’ll make life easier for both of you. What do you think?" 

Sam thought he was less excited than he had been, but it was better than doing the lab on his own, so he agreed. He hoped Castiel had good hands, because he fully intended to make him do the dissecting. 

 

Castiel was partly what he was expecting, but also not at all what he was expecting. Nerdy, yes, you’d have to be to be taking University classes while still in high school—even Sam wasn’t doing that. Thick-framed glasses, slightly disheveled, like he was too busy thinking about important science-y innovations to dress properly, with an intense, focused gaze that meant business. But also…kind of hot? Sam was NOT getting a crush on this guy, definitely not, it wasn’t like owl pellets were a super romantic way to meet somebody, and there was no way Castiel would be interested if he saw Sam trying to work with those itty-bitty tweezers. But damn, his hair was so touchable, and he had amazing shoulders, and long fingers that Sam was definitely not staring at when Castiel cleared his throat to get his attention. 

"So, how do you want to divide up the work?" Castiel’s voice was deep, and Sam was suddenly worried about his own cracking. They were alone in the lab, since Ms. Harvelle was grading in her office, and the space between them felt very small. 

"Well, I’m better at the writing stuff than the practical stuff, so maybe you could start taking it apart, and I can catalog what we find?" 

Castiel nodded, picking up the tools, and they set to work. It went smoothly at first, with Castiel extracting little bones and other debris for Sam to identify and arrange in a rough approximation of a skeleton. The idea was to eventually be able to determine what kind of animal the owl had eaten (usually a shrew or something) from its remains. Pretty morbid, but also pretty cool, if you were into solving puzzles, which it turned out they both were. Things were going really well, in fact, and there was something about the energy between them that Sam was really enjoying, beyond the simple fact that Castiel was very attractive, working with someone so focused and _smart_ was gratifying in a way that working with Victor, who was smart but really did not care all that much, just wasn’t.  


They were almost halfway done when they hit a problem. 

"Sam, why don’t you have a go at this bone. I can’t seem to free it, and it is frustrating me. I don’t want to break it just because it’s pissing me off." He held out the tweezers, but Sam froze. 

"I don’t think that’s a good idea, Cas. I’m…not great at this stuff. Fragile stuff. Maybe work on another piece for a while instead?" Cas looked at him curiously.  


"Sam, you’ve arranged those bones in a perfect configuration on the tray. You know the shape of every bone in every skeleton in the textbook. I am sure you can figure out how to dislodge this one, if you’ll just give it a try." 

"I’ll just break it." 

"I’m not sure about that, but if you do, I can say definitively that that will not be the worst thing that has happened to this rodent." 

Sam laughed, and Castiel held out the tweezers again with a smile. Somehow it helped, that Cas had faith in him but wouldn’t be angry if he screwed it up. And if he was going to try something like this, why not now, with the classroom empty and the only witness a guy he’d probably never see again? 

"Okay, I’ll give it a shot. Just…watch me and let me know if I’m doing anything wrong." He went in for the bone, holding the owl pellet still with another tool. 

"Hold on, just a minute," Cas stopped him, then reached out, almost touching Sam’s hand. "May I?" Sam’s heart skipped a beat as he nodded, giving Cas permission to rearrange his fingers on the tweezers so his grip was looser but still in control.  


"Your hand is tense because you’re nervous. If you can relax, you’ll be able to control the tweezers better." Well, it wasn’t helping his nerves that Castiel was standing so close, their arms and hands touching. 

Touching _over the owl pellet_ , Sam thought. This was not romantic, it was science. He returned his attention to the task at hand, and Cas pulled back to give him space to work. 

And he had been right. Sam recognized the bone, and knowing the shape of the part that was still stuck allowed him to work it out of the pellet in a way that wouldn’t break it. He was so excited when it came out that he almost broke it then by holding it too tightly, but he somehow managed to restrain himself. But he was still grinning with joy as he set the bone in place on the tray and rested his hands on the table in relief. 

"I knew you could do it," Cas said, and he was smiling as widely as Sam was. "You have…you have great hands," he added, briefly reaching out to hold one of Sam’s hands, only for a moment before he pulled back, clearly feeling he had made a mistake. 

But Sam wasn’t feeling nervous anymore, and he reached out toward Castiel. “May I?” Cas looked at his open hand, and Sam worried for a second that he was going to turn back to the owl pellet and the moment would be gone, but then Cas reached up and put his hand in Sam’s. 

"You have great hands, too, Cas," Sam said quietly, stroking the back of Cas’s hand with his thumb. 

"Teenage boys, I swear to God," came Ms. Harvelle’s voice from the front of the room. "You two are supposed to be identifying what poor, innocent creature that owl ate for breakfast, not canoodling." 

"Yes, ma’am. Sorry," they both said at once, dropping their hands and getting back to work. 

But as they left together later (having accurately identified their shrew), Cas reached over toward Sam with a questioning look. Sam smiled and intertwined his hand with Cas’s as his new partner looked up through his glass and asked, “so, you want to canoodle some more?” and they both dissolved into laughter, leaning into each other maybe a little more than necessary as they made their way down the hallway, hand in hand.  


After that, Sam switched to the after school lab. Victor would just have to make do on his own when he got back. 


End file.
